After taking a well-earned breather following their wildly successful 2021 record Amazing Things, UK alt-rock favourites Don Broco are stepping into a new era- and true to their word, they’re kicking things off Down Under. With their latest record almost complete, a killer set at this year’s Download Festival in the UK and a long-overdue return to Australian stages this September, it’s safe to say the Don Broco boys are well and truly fired up. I got to chat with lead singer Rob Damiani ahead of the tour news dropping to chat about this exciting new chapter.
“It was awesome” Damiani says of their recent set at Download. “It was our first show back in like a year, and it just felt so natural. To be back on stage again gave us that buzz- we were already excited to finish the record and start touring, but that made us feel like we need to get going again because just the feeling of being back on stage was amazing, the crowd were amazing.”
Don Broco’s time away hasn’t been wasted. They’ve been hunkered down in the studio, working on their fifth studio album with producer Dan Lancaster, who is also currently a touring-member for Muse and has been juggling producing their record alongside Muse’s own. “We knew we were going away and we had like a week of warm-up shows before Download, he had a load of festivals with Muse, so we really tried to cram in a full day before and hit burnout at the end of that week.” Rob laughs “To come back last week and get back in the studio- it was probably my favourite studio feeling I’ve had, maybe ever. I don’t know if it was just because we had a couple of weeks off doing the shows or just because we hit a new song which was probably one of the favourite songs we’ve ever written, who knows. It could have just been the moment influencing the feeling.”
And the first taste of new music is right around the corner, with Damiani sharing that they plan on nailing two more tracks for the upcoming record “They’re all written, it’s just actually piecing it together more than anything else because we’ve written so many demos. This is probably the most we’ve ever written for one record so we’ve got more than enough to choose from. We’ll hopefully be finished by the end of the month, and have new music out.” Damiani also shares that the music video for the lead single has just recently wrapped, saying, “That was really fun, just rocking out to it, because we’ve listened to it so much in the studio so to hear it in a live capacity, we were just like ‘wow, this is fun, this is going to be hella fun to play live.’”
That fresh creative energy is pouring into a sound that leans heavier than anything the band has previously done, whilst encapsulating moments from previous albums. “We embraced the music that got us into heavy music in the first place. We were of the era where nu metal reigned supreme growing up, and what a time to be alive. Limp Bizkit were the biggest band in the world. I recently rewatched all of the Mission Impossible movies and that era where MI:2 was coming out, Limp Bizkit reworked the theme song into such a banger. Music just felt so fresh and exciting, and energetic and raw. So we’ve embraced on that even further.”
While the album nods to their musical influences, Don Broco aren’t looking to simply replicate the past. “As nu metal has become popular again, a load of nu metal bands will spring up and just basically regurgitate what those bands did, and we don’t want to do that. We don’t want to live in the past, we want to drive things forward… But what made that genre so exciting when it first came out was that it felt fresh and exciting, bands weren’t afraid to try new things and bring in soundscapes and weird fucking vocals and make weird sounds with their mouth… bringing those things together has been really fun for us.”
2023 saw Don Broco do a small 3-show tour of Australia, with a few cities missing out. To make up for it, they’ve decided to kick off their upcoming world tour Down Under this September, and have invited Perth and Adelaide along for the fun this time, too.
“Brisbane will be the first time we get to play the new songs live, which is awesome.” Damiani laughs, checking the tour schedule to see which city is up first. “We’re just so excited to come back. I mean, no pressure on you Australians but every time we’ve been before, every show has been next- level energy… Of course, there is going to be one or two that are a bit more lower-energy on like a Tuesday or Wednesday night or whatever, but the previous times we’ve come to Australia every show has been nuts and you could just feel the energy in the room. And I feel, especially when we haven’t played in so long, that it almost does feel like coming home.”
Joining Don Broco on their Aussie tour will be Sydney band RedHook, “We’ve never played with them before, but we’re familiar with them. This will be the first time we’ve actually got to share a stage with them. So that’ll be awesome.”
With new music around the corner, a fresh new energy and reinvigorated sound, I just know this tour is going to be one for the books. With the alternative scene thriving so heavily in Australia, this may be the only time to catch these legends at such intimate venues, and to hear brand new music before the rest of the world!
Don Broco – Australian Tour 2025
Thurs, Sept 4 – Princess Theatre, Brisbane
Fri, Sept 5 – Manning Bar, Sydney
Sat, Sept 6 – The Croxton, Melbourne
Mon, Sept 8 – Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide
Tues, Sept 9 – Magnet House, Perth
Tickets and presale info HERE
Header image supplied by the artist
